I have been trying to use this thing for months now and it seems everything I can do on the push 2 I can do in the DAW much faster... Is there anything people use this for besides live beats for drunk chicks at shows? Is there any production value at all.

 

i have the push 1 and i like it

but the push 2 is very expensive and do the same thing as push 1, just sampling and display is the difference

but you are right the daw with mouse is faster
but play with the pads is fun as fuck
when you dont play drums or melodies with push , daw is faster with mouse

 

I have a mackie control universal, the old midi one, with flying faders that can pretty much control almost all of ableton's features with barely using the mouse and keyboard. I can agree with you on this. With my trackball and lives kb shorcuts I can work much faster. The flying faders are just for show now. WOW factor for guests really. I do use the trasport controls and jog wheel a lot. And arming tracks for recording. Its very useful when Im recording takes of vox or instruments being able to solo and mute quickly with lit up buttons. But for actual mixing I dont like to use the faders. I got it used 2nd hand from a friend for 100 bucks. He opened up a rec studio and bought a big ProTools desk to put his racks in.

 

Last edited: Oct 14, 2016

is all that mouse clicking and shortcuts fun? Do you all even enjoy making music anymore?

 

I still play all the midi on the axiom 61, but once I get it into the DAW it just becomes an oversized transport control.
Making music is more like therapy for me. Gives these voices in my head a chance to sing, harmonize and beatbox. Bobby McFerrin style,LoL!
When it becomes fun for me is after completion and I can sit back and ask myself "WOW! Did you really make that?"

 

Last edited: Oct 14, 2016

I've come close to understanding the conundrum here.
The mouse/keyboard combo just allows for greater configurabilty and precision.
Speed too, once you get the short-cuts cemented in your head.
If there was away to ALT/CTRL/SHIFT click for fine tuning my actual hand movements on my faders to 3 decimal places consistently, the precision part might be a tie.

My mouse/kb allows me to put down on screen what's in my head, exactly as I want.
The controllers and keys allow for things to come from that slightly more intimate place which some would call soul.
That's just me though.
The ratio of correlation between these two methods differ greatly for each person. A music theory adept or some technically gifted programmer would easily be able to express that intimacy using just a mouse and keyboard and never have to touch a piano key. And then playing in a sequence in 1/64 unquantized is cake for others.

Another thing I've learned using a dedicated controller is you can't expect it to follow your regular workflow. You will have to adapt and realize there are new ways to accomplish what you are trying to achieve. It might seem cumbersome at first but that's most likely because you're accustomed to doing things differently. And you've been doing them that way for years.
It wasn't until around the 8 month mark that I could confidently use my Maschine without making sure I had a mouse somewhere closeby.

Controllers like the Push have had insane amounts of thought put into them but have often been constructed with a certain workflow process in mind. You can try to make it conform to your way of working and you might come extremely close but I guarantee that every now and then you will reach a hurdle and will end up spending time trying to circumvent something that simply can't be.

Adapt yourself to the controller. Read a section of the user manual and physically replicate the information and examples yourself. Do this with the entire manual section by section before browsing YouTube for those tutorials we all love/hate.
Everything is in the manual. Understand everything in there and you'll end up being the one making tutorials and finding those cool hidden functions.

A wise member on this forum, I believe it was @Zenarcist, that said it requires a very different mindset.
I wholeheartedly agree.

I see your TLDR and raise you a RTFM.

EDIT - I almost forgot. Most of these controllers are geared towards playing live. On the fly.
This is sometimes far to exacting for that perfect arrangement.

 

Last edited: Oct 14, 2016

I understand it's slower, but there's more creativity and inspiration. Makes sense...

 

@OP, you may just have found that Push is not for you.
Or that Push would require to change your beloved workflow just too much.
There are loads of shiny, sexy controllers on the market, but no one can tell you which one suits your workflow.
I had to learn this for myself, and I recommend to actually start using your DAW of choice "conventionally" until you really master it. Only then is a good time to think about helping your workflow by what is really missing, if anything at all, and then maybe add some kind of controller.
It's not necessarily so much about speeding things up, it can also be a new way of sparking creativity for some time by approaching known procedures in a new way, like Push's way to play chords and tweak parameters for example.

 

Last edited: Oct 14, 2016

Once you get the right workflow in place bro, it can actually be much faster for the fundamentals like loading/chaining plugs, sequencing patterns & drums, adjusting sends/returns/levels. The basics.

Until we get a controller that offers ALL the functions of your DAW's interface, right there on the controller, there are some things that will always less accessible without that mouse.

 

Last edited: Oct 14, 2016

Yes, what @Pinkman said. I prefer the precision of clicking in numbers or holding ctrl to fine adjust. I find the fun there I guess. The geek in me.

 

in the right hands using abletons chord and key midi plugs make inspiration effortless

 

No doubt!
It's just different. Some guys like tweaking plugins, others like the haptic gadgets.

 

Depends on the style I guess. Spending hours to design a new synth sound (when working multilayer, mapping an entire synth to a controller is hardly an option), or spending hours on laying a groovy drum pattern can be both enjoying and rewarding. I can play a keyboard but I don't have that precision to swing beats with few milliseconds live, so mouse is the only way.

 

Funny how this threat shows up after I've had my first successfull push 2 experience a few hours ago.

The tune it sounds completelly different of what I normally and I like that.

I see this push and maschine like multi instruments and therefore needs to be learned by practice every time you can.

and if it doesn't work out that day..... mouse and keyboard then : )

 

Playing keys, pads and strings live brings with it an organic feel and the also ability to experience "happy accidents", or as @Pinkman describes it above .. you get Soul. Hell man, you can even play live parts using a computer keypad!

Regarding controllers, you have to learn how to use them, just like you had learn how to use a computer, software, how to type, etc. They are only tools, as is any musical instrument or even a pen and a sheet of paper. You should master them is such a way that they become an extension of your mind and body.

There are no shortcuts unfortunately, you really do need to put in the time and effort in order to get the most out of them. And if it's any consolation, a Push or Maschine is far more easier to learn compared to the Fairlights, Synclaviers, sequencers and samplers from the 80's & 90's

 

Last edited: Oct 15, 2016

I'm currently using TouchDaw to do this.

 

I'm waiting for a Reaper controller, maybe it's a long wait Seriously though, I think all DAWS will go touch screen with large sized monitors

 

Last edited: Oct 15, 2016

I tried to get touchdaw working but had no luck. I didn't spend enough time geeking out on their forums. I got a couple 7in fire tablets (free gift from the local casino) that I rooted and installed regular android on. I was going to test it out on them. Time to give it another go. That definitely seems to be one thing where apple has the upper hand. Midi and audio app/tools

 

It's working via Wi-Fi now, so I think it's a bit easier to set up

Try the mnet/MIDIHub solution - http://www.humatic.de/htools/touchdaw/quickstart.htm

It even comes with a free Push too

 

Last edited: Oct 15, 2016

Even better: An old iPad 1 and Lemur. And the free "binder" layout for Reaper control, which you can still adapt to your liking, like adding more pages etc.
Ah, and btw with "Livecontrol 2" you almost have a Push on it too.